How To Stay Healthy With Your Office Job
I’m writing this because I was asked by a dear friend of mine, to contribute to a Blog he is working on. This friend was the Workplace Health and Safety Officer for a company I worked for in London.
A Corporate Company. We both had desk jobs. We both had to work long hours.
And we both were keenly aware of the problems this can cause in terms of health and fitness for anyone who works in this manner.
Added to that we worked for a Catering Company - so we had access to all and any food that was available. This is also at a high-class Exhibition Centre in London - the food was EPIC and plentiful, to say the least.
I worked for this company for 10 years - and in that time I learnt an awful lot about how to balance your health whilst working in an office, at a Corporation and/or at a Desk and in this article I am going to share with you exactly what you can do too - based on my knowledge as an award-winning Personal Trainer as well as a guy who sat staring at a spreadsheet all day long. Added to that, many of my clients in London worked in Corporate Jobs, and at least three-quarters of my time training them was trying to help them manage their stress and their health.
And I hate spreadsheets. And no….they never got more interesting to me the more I looked at them.
I’m also likely to share far too many Memes from the TV Show The Office - because it’s awesome - and it would be remiss of me not to.
To look at what being Healthy really means, and to give this article some real context, I want to draw your attention to the actual definition of health, and it is through this perspective I will offer my best advice on How To Stay Healthy With Your Office Job.
Health is so much more than being fit and not having an illness. And there is an awful lot that the corporate world needs to catch up on with understanding this - and in my time in Corporate England, having worked in Banks, in Hospitality and in Retail I am aware it is getting better.
But there is an awful lot you can control yourself to make sure that whilst your company catches up, you also look after your health, in every sense of the word.
I will take you through a number of things you need to put in place, and then I will spend the last part of this article with things you should probably avoid trying to do as they can also not be helpful for you and your health.
I truly appreciate you being here. Anyone who comes to my site, I regard as a true friend - because it means so much to me that you are willing to read my work.
As my friend, I would like to email you things. Sometimes they will be educational, sometimes they will be inappropriate, sometimes I might just want to know how you are; either way…it would be delightful to connect with you.
Just send me a friend request by filling out the form below…
Oh, and I will also send you some free fitness goodies to help start our new friendship off on the best foot possible.
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR: HOW TO STAY HEALTHY WITH YOUR OFFICE JOB:
Let’s Talk About Stress for a Hot Second
Stress Buster 1: Boundaries (respect space and time for others)
Stress Buster 2: Having a purpose
Stress Buster 3: Movement and physical wellbeing in the office
Stress Buster 4: Nutrition - especially Water
Other Ways To Manage Stress
LET’S TALK ABOUT STRESS FOR A HOT SECOND…
This is first on the list for a very good reason.
Stress affects everything we do - and your ability to be healthy in the Office will very much depend on this factor of your life.
In fact everything else in this article will feed into your ability to manage your stress in different ways.
It affects our ability to sleep, our ability to work out, our ability to interact with others, our ability to process emotions, our ability to control our responses and our ability to eat nutritiously.
I am sure they all resonate with you when you think back to times you were stressed.
Stress can be defined [2] as:
“It’s what occurs when the perceived demands of a situation outweigh one’s available resources”
Work in its nature is a stressor. In the same way that working out is a stressor. This does not inherently mean it is a bad thing, without stress we cannot grow. However, too much stress or unmanaged stress can become a problem.
Stress and Anxiety are signs of unmanaged Mental Health and need to be addressed as soon as possible, in a way that strikes a fair and reasonable balance for both your output at work and your own wellbeing.
This is a different range for everyone. We can all manage and process different amounts of stress in different ways. We cannot change the temperament we were born with, and therefore we must respect our own individual limits of this.
The definition of stress quantifies it simply as what you “perceive”. In Fitness, as in life, what you perceive to be true - is true. Your brain doesn’t know the difference between fiction and reality, it just treats everything as reality, and therefore if you believe it to be true that you are stressed, regardless of the opinion of your manager or co-workers - it simply is true.
As I was writing this Blog - two stories stood out to me on the BBC. One of the stories is called “Why millennial managers are burned out” and states the following [9]:
“Middle management can be a tough job, constantly toggling between supervisors above and supervisees below. It can be isolating and taxing; research from Columbia University in 2015 found 18% of middle managers reported symptoms of depression, compared to 12% for blue-collar workers and 11% for owners and executives. Research during the pandemic has shown middle managers are finding it harder than senior leaders to maintain workplaces relationships – and only half feel they can rely on their colleagues.
Middle managers who are millennials are particularly likely to be feeling the squeeze. A MetLife study showed millennial managers are far more likely than managers of any other generation to report burnout. That’s partly due to growing up in a culture that glorifies overwork, plus being a generation saddled with care responsibilities for both parents and children. And with the pandemic nearing the two-year mark, it’s no wonder that millennial middle managers are finding themselves exhausted, demoralised and stressed”
The other story I mention in the section of this article relates to “Boundaries”.
What Denotes Stress In Your Job?
According to the American Psychological Associations 2017 Report, stress has climbed for the first time in a decade, and the key factors that lend to how stressed someone feels are down to “career and money-related issues, both of which tie into work, are two of the leading and most consistent year-to-year causes of stress”. [2]
A 2001 Systematic Review Study which was called “Improving the Health of the NHS Workforce” reviewed the evidence of associations between work factors and ill health and of effective workplace interventions.
They found the key factors leading to stress were:
Long hours worked, work overload and pressure
The effects of these on personal lives
Lack of control over your work and lack of participation in decision making
Poor social support
Unclear management and work role and poor management style.
The Time I Punched A Wall At Work
The wall won.
I was at work, it was about 20:30 at night, and I was responsible for closing up our office with no natural light in it. I was the only one left in the office other than one of my managers, and I still had to calculate every one’s working hours, combined with, signing out staff, and then closing up.
I had an hours commute home.
And the next day started at 06:30 am for me, in the Gym with clients.
My Manager came through to say goodbye, and I personally felt like I just needed a bit of quiet time, to crack on with the work I had to get done - but alas, my Manager had other ideas and gave me a lot more other work to be done.
I could feel my anxiety rise. I could feel how victimised I felt and how overwhelmed I was feeling. There was no way I was going to leave on time, manage other parts of my life, and complete all tasks ahead of me.
But instead of communicating that.
I did an Andy (see above GIF).
At this point in my life, I didn’t have the skill or ability or relationship to communicate my feelings properly in that moment, and I just accepted my place as the guy who had everyone else’s work dumped on me.
I was very lucky in the sense that I could select the sort of shifts and hours I worked at this job and upon reflection, realising how stressed I felt, I made a very brave decision the next time I needed to submit what hours I was able to work - I simply stopped stating I was available to close up and moved on from there.
I never punched a wall again.
This brings me to my next point…
Stress Buster 1: Boundaries (respect space and time for others)
Before writing this article, I reached out to everyone on my Email List (subscribe here) to ask for helpful suggestions and strategies to be healthy in the office that they have experienced.
But one response came through which was the following:
“One more editorial suggestion is to be mindful of coworkers taking personal time during the workday. Respect it. For example, If someone is taking personal time to eat lunch (should be away from their desk/office space) don’t interrupt them with work things. Either join them and engage in conversation about things outside of work or leave them alone to have those precious moments"
I love everyone on my email list so much - they are the most rounded and holistic bunch of people I have ever met - you really should join the party here.
And Boundaries in the Office are so very important.
Boundaries for your co-workers are of course important, but not more important than the boundaries you set yourself.
It is when these boundaries break down and are not respected, that your stress will immediately spike. But here’s the rub, people will only respect you if you respect yourself first.
It all comes from you.
Boundaries you should set in the Workplace
Not being smelt is top of the list - obvs!
Home Time and Start Time: In your job, you have a contract. This contract explicitly will state the time you are scheduled to start your work, and the time you are scheduled to finish your work. You should stick to these times for at least 90% of your time when you are at work - as they will be the marker upon which you balance your home life - and if your home life isn’t compromised then your stress levels will automatically be lowered. I understand the desire to climb the ladder, to work within the unexpected rules of the Corporate Work to climb said ladder and look to be doing that little bit more. But if that little bit more, becomes a lot more, you will be far less productive and effective than you think you will be, because you will be more stressed out. There comes a point when doing more equals doing an awful lot less.
Lunch Time: This one drives me crazy. Stop working through your lunch. Just stop it. Stop thinking you are being a superhero by eating and working at the same time. You aren’t. In fact, by not taking adequate rest, you are hindering your ability to actually be productive. And by being less productive, in the long term, you are going to increase your stress levels.
Don’t believe me?
This study from the University of Illinois [4] took 84 participants, who were set memory tasks for an hour, and the study set out to find out why we have trouble focussing on one task for a very long time, and why our focus on that task begins to diminish.
Thye had two groups - one group who were focussed on the task the whole time, and another who were given two brief breaks during the task. The group that were allowed breaks were focused during the entire experiment.
Added to that, with regards to your ability to spend time with your food, you will greatly decrease the chances of your likelihood to overeat either in the moment or later in the day. By spending time with your food, and treating your body with self-love, feeding it properly, and giving yourself the correct amount of time to enjoy your meal, you feel much more satiated than if you ate distracted.
Communication outside of work hours: Stop letting your boss, or your colleague message you 24-7. This also means you have to stop messaging them 24-7 as well. You are only required to answer work calls, during work hours.
This is another example of where I had to put my foot down with my Corporate Job. I would get calls when I was with clients in the Gym, I would get calls on the way to work, on the way home. I would get calls at lunch when I was on the loo.
It drove me mad. Let a man toilet in peace.
In fact, we had an ongoing job in the Office about communication. The Office I worked in was an operations office, and therefore we needed Radio Comms as well. Now whenever one of my Managers needed something, there was no “one way of communicating”. Or rather there was, as in, every single channel would go berserk.
I would get a landline phone call, a radio call, a mobile call and usually a text message as well asking me to respond - all the while I was dealing with an actual human in front of me.
Everything beeped, crackled and rang - to say it created stress would be an understatement.
Every day we were WUPHED - put the sound on for this video:
Boundaries are hard to implement initially in the office. But when you put them in place, and crucially when YOU start respecting them, others will as well. It all starts with you.
As I was writing this Blog Post a new story hit the BBC which I personally find inspiring and depressing all at the same time. Its called “Portugal bans bosses texting staff after-hours” [10]
Portugal has introduced laws titled “right to rest” and is designed to help improve work-life balance. They have passed them to help improve migration to the country for Digital Workers, and there are a whole host of other rules involved as well. One key one is that employees have a right to work from home without prior notice if they have children under the age of 8.
This is one incredible piece of legislation that Covid has helped bring along. When Covid hit the UK I was more keenly aware with my clients that were used to trekking into the City of London each day and living the office life, how much more balanced they felt initially being able to work from home in a much more flexible manner with the understanding of their employees. It was one thing from the Pandemic that I hoped would take root and grow - and that companies would be more open-minded to the needs of their employees.
But time will tell on that one….
Stress Buster 2: Having a purpose at work
I remember the moment this clicked for me in my Corporate Job. For a long time, it just felt like I was showing up, doing mindless paperwork, and going home. It made me feel numb - and then after a very in-depth conversation with one of my managers, I came to realise that by providing staff for exhibitions and functions, and how food is a very crucial part of bringing people together at events like this, my job wasn’t simply filling in shifts on a planner - it was being a conduit of creating friendships and business relationships.
I know this to be true in my work as a Coach as well.
It’s a much more obvious “purpose” to have - to help people change their lives - but it makes working a joy - and not a stressor at all.
Now, I’m not naive enough to say that even if you do adore your job, like I do, working and helping people get stronger, improve their relationships with food and themselves, and help above all build up their confidence in my Strong and Confident Program, that you won’t get stressed out by it. Of course, you will because work is a stressor.
This study [5] by Washington University surveyed 1109 people and found that: “Having a written personal statement of purpose helped people in various ways, including coping with stress and finding happiness”
Therefore if you are reading this, grab a pen and paper and write down what your higher purpose in your professional life is. It is my personal opinion that it shouldn’t revolve around money - if you can’t think of a greater reason to do your job than to make money, then maybe you need to find a new job.
If you aren’t this excited to get a promotion…how connected to your higher purpose are you really?
Human beings need a purpose from everything we do in life to make us feel productive and to help give our lives meaning. Personally, I have rotted away in a couple of jobs, and it is not a fun way to live - even though I may have been better off financially in them, that is simply not enough.
Stress Buster 3: Movement and Physical Wellbeing in the Office
8 hours sitting in an office is not conducive to physical wellbeing. But I know you already know that.
And me simply sitting here telling you how to move in the Office is going to be futile.
I remember once I pulled out a Foam Roller to help my recovery after a tough game refereeing, and it was on my lunch break, but my Manager looked at me in disgust and told me to never do that again.
I then also asked for a stand-up desk…do you know how expensive they are? Added to that, having the energy to stand up for 8 hours every day whilst at work, is more tiring than it sounds.
And come on - Desk Chair Yoga…I can’t believe that anyone who works in an office actually does that in front of their colleagues and in their suits…
There is a dichotomy here. You must balance your ability to be productive with your physical health and your ability to not lose your job.
My best advice for trying to manage your physical health in the office would be this:
Break up your Lunch Breaks - give yourself 20 minutes to sit and be with your food, to focus on eating and looking after yourself there, and 20mins for a brisk walk outside.
Take regular movement breaks from your work - once an hour if possible, just get up and stretch your legs, a brief walk up and down the stairs, make a cup of tea for others in the office, or just stand and stare out of the window.
Have a physical hobby outside of the office - try and have a hobby you do outside of the office - whether that be swimming, going to the Gym, Stand Up Paddle Boarding, Walking, or getting outside with the children.
Move during your meetings - this one might take a bit of getting used to, but when you have a one-on-one meeting with a colleague, ask if you can do it whilst moving or walking. Or failing that, every time you are on the phone - stand up. This will not only be better for your health but also better for your productivity.
When asking for tips on this Article, one of the email responses I received was:
“You can also get an accountabilabuddy (copyright from SouthPark the tv show) to help you leave the office to get some movement or a workout in at a certain time. Think of it like a human alarm clock coming to find out if you have prioritized your health and/or wellness for that day and gone out and done some moving around, in whatever form you enjoy”
Find some like-minded colleagues, and work together to change the culture in your office. Remember if you want to change you have to initiate it, stick to it, and allow others to respect it by respecting it yourself first.
Personally, I also think an Annual Office Fun Run, Tough Mudder or some other physical activity for the group is always a good idea to bring a collective togetherness and a little more focus to the movement you will be doing.
Stress Buster 4: Nutrition - especially Water
As I mentioned in my introduction - where I worked we had open access to some glorious food. Lunch was laid on for us every day, and although often what I could eat was out of my control in terms of content I was very lucky to not have to think about what to take to work for lunch each day - this naturally lowered my stress.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you how to lose weight in the Office - as that is a very simple answer which I go into detail in another Blog Post which has helped thousands of people lose weight already: What is a Calorie Deficit Diet Plan?
But I am going to outline how looking after your nutrition in all areas of life will help you feel less stressed. Most people have a slight voice in their head that is trying to guide them towards more optimal health or at the very least stay in balance with where they currently are.
Now an Office is an environment in terms of your diet and nutrition that will significantly challenge in your mind what you are working towards. These opposing forces in your life will cause stress. You want to enjoy Jeanette’s Birthday Donuts, but you also want to “keep healthy”.
The best way to manage this is with acceptance and understanding.
You have every right to give yourself permission to enjoy the Birthday Donut, and then get on with the rest of your day. These occurrences in the Office are not stopping you from succeeding - what you do for the majority of your time is stopping you from succeeding.
It’s very easy for us to blame the obvious. In this case, the gooey Krispy Kremes, because we are perpetually told that they are bad or naughty foods. But, they aren’t. They are just food. Food that brings you closely socially to your colleagues, and food that breaks up the monotony of staring at the spreadsheets.
As long as your diet elsewhere in your life is congruent to your Goals, then you should be able to enjoy these moments with your colleagues without it stressing you out, and thinking that one Krispy Kreme has led to weight gain or you feeling unhealthy. I promise you it hasn’t. It’s just the story you tell yourself that will lead to stressing you out the more you respond in that way.
There is an inherent conflict with nutrition that leads to stress and then ultimately failure in line with your Goals. When you constantly “give into temptation” and believe it to be affecting you too much for your goals, you will give up on your goals. The best way to get rid of that conflict is by giving yourself freedom and permission to enjoy these moments in isolation for what they are - rather than feeling like you are in a constant fight with your environment.
The other topic here is that of Water.
This study [6] demonstrates the effect that staying hydrated has on your mental health, cognition and physical health. Far too often in the Office did I forget to drink enough water, because I find that the demands of the work didn’t necessarily make me thirsty - a stark contrast to how much I drink when I used to work on the Gym Floor with clients.
The more dehydrated you are, the more anxious you might feel. You will also feel less fatigued and Water will improve digestion - something that sitting isn’t too helpful for.
I recommend to all of my clients to drink 3 litres a day. If you can make 2 litres of it at least clear water, the other litre you will likely pick up from other drinks and your food intake.
Other Ways To Manage Stress
Stress is a topic that I delve into a lot with clients because of simply how much it interferes with health and fitness. The biggest ingredient with Stress is how it will affect your ability to choose food that will nourish you.
And stress from the Offic e can very much lead to stress at home - and before you know it - you’re constantly stressed over silly things like losing your phone….
And you learn to manage that with your food - as opposed to dealing with why you are choosing those foods in particular.
So here are my other top tips to help you cope with the stressors of the office, whether you are in the office or not.
1. Get Strict on Sleep
I have a whole other Blog Post outlining why sleep is so important for your stress levels right here: Why Does Sleep Affect Your Weight Loss?
Therefore I won’t get into the nitty-gritty of it now, but Sleep is the single most important facet of your ability to cope with stress, and you ignore it at the peril of your health.
If you struggle to switch off at night and/or find yourself waking up in the middle of the night then I would suggest listening to sleep stories to help you get into a deep and wonderful sleep. As children, we used to always settle down with a story, and now we are in the age of technology its iPhones and Netflix before bed - two things that will not help you sleep - just like with your children.
On my YouTube Channel I have some Sleep Stories as well as Sleep Meditations.
My favourite is my Sleep Story about The Ancient Roman Town of Aquae Sulis - give it a go - and remember if you don’t ever finish the Sleep Story I will certainly not be offended…
2. Meditate
I do not meditate anywhere near as much as I should. But then again, I’m not as stressed out now as much as I used to be. In fact, I used to Meditate a lot more when I worked in the Office. I would put my headphones in, be working on a project and away I would go, meditating as I worked. Listening to calming sounds and allowing my focus to fall into free-flow as opposed to working through tension.
And sometimes I would take myself off, and actually do a guided meditation when I really needed to. For some reason, I just can’t make it a habit when I’m in a less stressful situation myself - like now and the job I do.
I have a Free Meditation Course called The Daily Stillness you can enjoy. You get 10-minute meditations, each and every day for 30 days. If you would like to try it out then please click here.
Here is the very first Meditation you get sent if you want to “try before you commit”:
3. Move Frequently
You’ve probably heard that exercise releases positive endorphins. Which it does, because our body is designed to be moved, however, I fully appreciate that these positive endorphins happen once you’ve exercised, and they simply aren’t enough of a reward if you are anxious/worried about exercising, begin with. Added to that, I’ve had many workouts that didn’t make me feel as high as a kite, but just a simple lovely sense of accomplishment. I often feel that the idea of positive endorphins is overhyped and we expect it to feel like snorting a line…which it obviously doesn’t - not that I have ever experienced that feeling either.
Movement helps us process our emotions, especially our negative ones. It gives us a great sense of achievement - provided you enter into a relationship with movement without the goal of losing weight. Always move to feel Strong and Confident.
Added to that, movement helps us sleep better - and anything that helps our superpower against stress we should certainly engage with.
If you need some workouts to get you started then please head here: Free Fitness Goodies
4. Get Into Nature
There are two very important studies that back this point up.
The first was done in the 1980s and they found that giving hospital patients a view of a tree from their hospital bed needed less pain medication and recovered faster than those who only saw brick walls - and this has been backed up by the American Psychological Association [7] in 2016.
The second is a study [8] done in 2001 at the University of Illinois found that people coped better with big life decisions when living in an Inner City Environment if they had nearby trees and grass - compared to those who were just surrounded by concrete.
Personally, I know this to be true as well. I now live on the Gold Coast in Australia, after having lived in South East England my whole life - and the sheer amount of tress, access to Beaches and the ability to walk in the Rainforest here always helps me de-stress, and arguably my living situation is more stressful here, but I don’t feel that stress as much as I did when living in England.
There is something beautifully humbling about nature. It reminds you very simply how big the world is, how magnificent it is and how insignificant as a human you are. It brings you perspective. The human race has a habit of living in its own Soap Opera and nature takes you away from that.
When you see the Pacific Ocean, or a Sea Turtle, or Dolphins Swimming. When you look at Giant Redwoods and see the intricate ecosystem of the forest you understand that if you missed a deadline at work or that little comment that Steve said the other day about your work is insignificant. It's just not important. You learn a different perspective.
We are on this earth, if we are lucky, for 80 years. The earth has existed for 4.53 billion years. The earth spins 1000 miles per hour. So what happened to you yesterday, is now 24,000 miles or 38,624kms away from where you are right now.
It such a spec in time, you wouldn't even be able to see it.
And that’s liberating. It’s humbling. It’s beautiful.
So beautiful, you should be dancing about it!
Did You Find This Useful?
Firstly I want to say a huge thank you for reading my article, and I hope it has given you some food for thought in relation to how better to balance your health and the Office you work in.
Across this website, I have other Articles all about managing your health and movement:
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Thank you so much for reading my article - I really hope you found it helpful.
References:
Who.int. 2021. Constitution of the World Health Organization. [online] Available at: <https://www.who.int/about/governance/constitution> [Accessed 3 November 2021].
Verywell Mind. 2021. Do You Have a Stress-Prone Personality?. [online] Available at: <https://www.verywellmind.com/why-do-stressors-affect-people-differently-3145061> [Accessed 4 November 2021].
Atsunori Ariga, Alejandro Lleras, Brief and rare mental “breaks” keep you focused: Deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements, Cognition, Volume 118, Issue 3,2011, [online] Available at: <https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2010.12.007>
Anon, 2021. Apa.org. Available at: https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf [Accessed 2021].
Liska D, Mah E, Brisbois T, Barrios PL, Baker LB, Spriet LL. Narrative Review of Hydration and Selected Health Outcomes in the General Population. Nutrients. 2019;11(1):70. Published 2019 Jan 1. doi:10.3390/nu11010070
Anon, 16/10/2016 green is good for you. Available at: http://www.unature.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Green-is-good-for-you.pdf [Accessed November 12, 2021].
Anon, Coping with PPoverty impacts environment ... - csu.edu. Available at: https://www.csu.edu/cerc/researchreports/documents/CopingWithPpovertyImpactsEnvironmentAttentionInTheInnerCity2001.pdf [Accessed November 12, 2021].
Anon, Why millennial managers are burned out. BBC Worklife. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20211109-why-millennial-managers-are-burned-out [Accessed November 13, 2021].
Anon, 2021. Portugal bans bosses texting staff after-hours. BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59263300 [Accessed November 13, 2021].